


New World

by JessicaMDawn



Series: New World [1]
Category: Primeval
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fluff and Angst, Time Shenanigans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-23
Updated: 2011-03-29
Packaged: 2017-11-26 23:47:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/655730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JessicaMDawn/pseuds/JessicaMDawn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Connor wakes up one day to find that the world he knew has changed. The ARC doesn't exist, the team was never formed, and no one remembers a thing. Searching for answers, Connor finds himself at the Home Office faced with Captain Becker, James Lester, and surprisingly, Nick Cutter: the members of the new 'ARC' in this world. Connor/Becker. Set near the end of Season 3.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

"He's home now," Connor said as he and Abby came back through an anomaly. They'd just finished ushering the mammoth from the ARC, and the other one that had come through today, back through the anomaly to its own time. It had taken forever, but finally one had opened to the right time period.

"Whoo!" Abby whooped beside him and they gave each other a high five with huge grins. Abby's smile turned sorrowful and she faced the anomaly. "I'll miss him, but he's back where he belongs."

Connor nodded. "Yea. But not as much as Lester," he joked. Connor moved over to his anomaly locker and pressed it. "Ow!" he gasped as it shocked him. Abby gave him a concerned look but Connor shook his head when the anomaly locked anyway. "It zapped me. Nasty," he explained.

"You alright?" Becker asked, stepping closer to the duo. Connor beamed at him.

"Brilliant, actually," Connor informed him.

Abby shook her head when they just continued to stare at each other. "I swear, you two need to get a room. Or better yet, Becker," she addressed their chief of security. "Have him move in with you so I don't have to listen to him swoon all the time." She was grinning like a madwoman.

Connor frowned, if it was possible, playfully. "Aw, come on, Abby. You know you'd miss me," he teased her.

Becker laughed and knocked Connor's shoulder with his own. "Either way, it's not a bad idea. But my flat was only built for one and I can't move right now, so it'll have to wait."

Abby nearly doubled over with laughter at how Connor's eyes lit up like diamonds at the same time that he looked a bit freaked out. Becker was drawn by her laughter and thus didn't see the reaction and Connor was pouting at her by the time he looked away again.

"Alright," Becker said at length, when Abby wasn't chortling anymore. "Let's get back to the ARC. I'm sure there's some paperwork you haven't done," he said in general, but it was aimed at Connor.

Connor continued to pout as they made their way to the cars. He winced when his zapped fingers stung some more and decided that he'd have to put some sort of cream or something on them when they got back. He felt like a human lightening rod right now.

…

…

The first thing Connor realized when he woke up the next morning was that he wasn't in his own bed at Abby's flat. That wasn't weird because he'd stayed the night at Becker's place. The second thing Connor realized when he woke up was that he wasn't in Becker's bed either.

"Huh?" he gasped, shooting up and looking around. "What?" he breathed out.

It looked like…the flat he'd lived in before he moved in with Abby. His DVD and comic collections were against one wall of the room, with his dinky T.V. set across from the bed with his game systems below it for easy access and optimum laziness. There were dirty clothes all across the floor and Connor saw outfits that he remembered being destroyed by dinosaurs lying intact near the typically unused hamper.

Connor leapt from his bed and hurried into the other rooms. There were half empty bottles of shampoos he no longer used on the side of the shower. His kitchen had dirty dishes in the sink that Connor distinctly remembered taking to Abby's with him when he moved…and they hadn't been dirty yesterday. Several energy drinks were in the fridge – a habit Connor had ditched once he joined the ARC. There was a desk in the corner with buckets of papers littered all around. He remembered that pile. It was the research he'd done on his dissertation about alien life on Earth. But….he'd thrown it out when he quit school and became a full time worker at the ARC.

How on Earth was all this stuff here?

Connor found a newspaper on the kitchen table and snatched it up. 2009. The date was right. Connor booted up his computer (an older model than the one he remembered having yesterday) and went to his documents.

Nothing. All his old conspiracy theory documents were accounted for, but nothing related to the ARC or anomalies at all was there. His phone rang and Connor ripped it from where it rested on the desk.

"Reminder" flashed on the screen, and below that was the date and the event. Class. It was a class Connor had never heard of, never signed up for, didn't care about. He tossed the phone back onto the wood and pulled up the internet.

What was going on?

…

…

"This can't be happening," Connor breathed out in horror, hours later, still sitting in front of his computer. "No."

What kind of sick and twisted world had he woke up in?

Stephen Hart was listed as a lab technician until three years ago, and then he just suddenly vanished. Professor Nick Cutter was the same way: he was just gone. Connor couldn't find obituaries, grave sites, notices of a move, medical records, anything! It was like they'd ceased to exist or something!

The anomalies had definitely still happened, however. They were more noticeable, though still a secret, it seemed. Connor looked back on the days he remembered finding the anomalies and noticed more deaths than there had been originally. It was like they were still waiting for someone to die to learn where the anomalies were. Who 'they' were was another question, because Connor couldn't find an Anomaly Research Center _anywhere._ The place just didn't exist; simple as that.

What hurt the most right now was that Connor couldn't find Becker. He found Becker's name on a list of graduates from Sandhurst, but he vanished like Stephen and the professor after that. Connor even looked up Becker's address, but it was rented out to someone named Clyde Webber and that definitely wasn't Becker.

Was it a good thing that he couldn't find the captain? If nothing Connor remembered had actually happened, then he and Becker probably weren't a couple. So was it better this way? But what if Becker remembered too and was worried about him?

Connor looked down at the slip of paper he'd been writing on. On it was the only address he'd been able to find on anyone from their old team. He hadn't found a record of a Danny Quinn or a Sarah Page, but he had found Abby Maitland. Her life hadn't changed a bit. She still lived in the flat where Connor had become her roommate, and she still worked at the zoo.

"I've got to talk to her. She's got to remember," he murmured to himself before lifting from the chair and hurrying to his bedroom to change his clothes and get presentable.

It felt weird to wear his vests and jackets again after having switched to normal shirts for so long, but it also brought him comfort in the familiarity. His hair was a bit long, but in this timeline he'd obviously still cut it because it was shorter than Connor remembered it being when he was still in school before.

Hoping in his car, it was only a few pulse pounding minutes before Connor was parked outside the zoo. The information he'd found said Abby worked in the bug department, but if Connor knew Abby at all, she would be in with the lizards.

And she was. Dressed in a maroon shirt with the zoo's name on it, Abby looked just like Connor remembered her from yesterday.

He couldn't hold it in. "Abby!" he shouted, beaming.

She jumped and flipped around with wide eyes, then narrowed them at him in confusion. "Can I help you?" she asked.

Connor's smile dimmed. "Abby….Abby, it's me. Connor," he prompted, putting his hands on his chest in a gesture toward himself.

Abby looked him over, slowly, before shaking her head. "Sorry, mate. I don't know you. Where did we meet?" she asked, trying to be polite anyway.

"The Forest of Dean," Connor said quietly, his confidence in the bin.

"What?" Abby shook her head. "I've never been," she informed him.

Connor balked. "What? N-never? What about…What about Rex?" Abby raised an eyebrow and Connor floundered. "Rex! He's your Coelurosauravus." Abby shook her head, her expression becoming more and more concerned. Connor shut his eyes for a moment and sighed. "A lizard," he amended softly. "He's one of your lizards."

Abby shook her head a bit more forcefully, shrugging. "I don't own a Coel-whatever it is. I'm sorry, but I think you've mistaken me for someone else."

Connor shook his head. "No, I-" he stopped. Shutting his eyes again, Connor took a deep breath. "I'm sorry," he began, his voice more calm even as his heart was trying to break out of his chest. "I'm really sorry about all this."

Then he turned and fled. Abby called after him but he didn't turn around. He didn't stop until he was safely tucked away in his car, and then he leaned his forehead against his steering wheel and forced himself not to cry.

Why was it only him? He was a stranger to his best friend and he couldn't even find the others. If the timeline wanted to change, the least it could do was not let him remember, or make him cease to exist like Claudia Brown!

Connor gasped, sitting up straight in his chair. Claudia Brown! He knew who Claudia Brown was! Not just how Cutter had explained her, but he distinctly remembered working with her! He also remembered not remembering her when she'd vanished and Jenny had taken her place.

Oh this was so confusing.

…

…

It had taken Connor a stupidly long time to think of this plan. Why had he not looked up Lester in the first place? But now he had and he was standing outside of the Home Office, where he knew Sir James Lester was still an employee. Most of the files Connor had managed to find while hacking were confidential and he couldn't get past the firewall. If he tried a bit harder, Connor was certain he could've broken through, but he really didn't want to read all those files. He wanted to talk to the man in person.

After his failure with Abby, he really didn't think Lester of all people would remember. However, Lester still worked for the government and someone was still taking care of the creatures that came through the anomalies, so this was his best shot.

When he walked in, he was immediately stopped by a man that he knew for a fact was part of the ARC security before.

"Identification?" the man asked stonily.

Connor gave him an award-winning grin. "Left it in my other pants," he said casually, with a hint of embarrassment. "Don't suppose you could just let me through, could you?" The man frowned at him and Connor pouted. "Come on, please? I'm supposed to meet with Lester soon." He tried to sound convincing, but apparently his lying skills hadn't improved much because the man's frown simply deepened and he nodded to the doors.

"You'll have to leave, sir."

"Please?" Connor tried again, and he didn't have to fake his pathetic look. "I really need to see him."

The guard shook his head. "Without the proper identification, no one is allowed beyond this point."

"Well, I had the proper identification until yesterday," Connor muttered bitterly.

"What was that?"

Connor shook his head. "I lost mine, really," he said instead. "Just let me through and I swear I'll sort things out with Lester." Or he desperately _hoped_ he could sort things out with Lester.

"No."

Connor couldn't help the glare on his face. "Come on, mate! I'm no danger. Let me through!"

The man's hand went to his waist and Connor had no doubt he was reaching for his gun. "I'm asking you to leave, sir."

Connor gulped. He'd never been particularly fond of having guns pointed at his person. He shrugged. "Alright, alright," he agreed, holding his hands up in surrender. The man's hand left his gun. Connor waited until it joined its brother in crossing over the man's chest before he acted.

And boy did he act stupid.

He pulled his right arm back, made a fist, and punched the guard square in the jaw. The man let out a short howl and grabbed at his cheek while Connor darted past him. The guard reached for him but Connor slid to the floor and out of his reach and then rolled back up onto his feet and kept going. He ran until he was three hallways over and then stopped by a list of people and offices on the wall.

"Lester, Lester, Lester," he repeated as he scanned the list. "Aha. Oh! Fifth floor?" he whined. "Why's he always gotta be so high up?"

Connor bolted to the lifts and jabbed the button for the fifth floor. Just as the doors were shutting he saw the guard move into the hallway, then he was safe inside the little glass box. He let himself breathe a bit, calming his heart rate.

He was almost there. Oh, he hoped this wasn't all for nothing! If he got all the way to Lester and Lester didn't remember him and didn't believe him, then there was no way in Hell he was going to make it back out of this building without being caught and forced into some kind of punishment.

The lift dinged and the doors opened. Connor made to get out but on the other side of the door were four men in military uniforms, all with their guns pointed straight at his chest. Connor threw his hands up and gave a shaky smile.

"Parlay?" he said nervously, trying to smile.

…

…

Connor was anxiously pacing the little room they'd put him in. He didn't see any cameras in here, but there was also no way he was getting out. Heck, the room was barely big enough for him to pace in. The heavy metal door had a small window in it and Connor was reminded of when Danny arrested him before. He'd been in here for ten minutes now, and though there was a chair provided, Connor couldn't sit still.

What was going to happen to him now?

He'd have to make them believe that he had a dreadfully important message for Lester or they'd never let him out. It would have to be something threatening Queen and country. Or maybe he could say he'd received a letter to give to Lester about the safety of his kids? No, Lester would kill him once he found out he was lying.

The door clicked and swung open just far enough to let someone else enter the room. A man in all black – a Special Forces unit – walked in and the door shut behind him. In his hands was a small gun, but across his back was strapped a larger one. The small gun pointed at him was the only reason Connor didn't leap on the man.

Captain Becker!

"Becker!" he squeaked. He slapped himself. "Ow." Checking again revealed that he wasn't dreaming. Captain Becker was really standing before him, though he looked pissed. "Becker," he barely whispered.

"Who are you?" Becker demanded. There wasn't an ounce of recognition on his face and Connor felt the bottom drop out of his stomach.

Could time rewind to before he walked in the building? No? Why did the world hate him so much?

"Becker-" he tried, but Becker shifted his gun menacingly and Connor stopped.

"I'll ask again. Who are you?"

Connor gulped down the tears that wanted to spring to his eyes. "C….Connor. Connor Temple."

"I've been told that you were trying to speak with Sir James Lester," Becker recited dutifully. "Why?"

Connor stared pathetically at Becker for several long moments, praying that any moment now the military man would remember who Connor was. He got nothing but an increasingly agitated expression from the man who was his boyfriend yesterday. It hurt.

"Something," Connor tried, but he had to stop. After a deep breath, he tried again. "Something is terribly wrong with the world. What was true yesterday is no longer true today. The whole timeline of life got screwed up." He knew this probably made no sense to Becker, since the ARC didn't exist anymore, but he said it anyway. "I need to speak with Lester because I'm certain that, no matter what, he's the man behind the research into the anomalies and….and I need answers, Becker."

Becker shook his head. "How do you know me?" he demanded, glaring.

"I…" Connor shook his head. "It doesn't matter. You wouldn't believe me even if I told you…and you won't remember, no matter what." He stared forlornly at the floor, trying not to cry. "Just…I know you."

For a long while, neither of them said anything. Finally, Becker shook his head. "Well I don't know you. Sorry, but you'll be escorted off the premises. If you try this sort of thing again, we'll have no choice but to arrest you." He turned his back to Connor and put his hand on the handle of the door, slipping his gun in his pocket.

Connor panicked. "Wait. Hilary James Becker! Wait!" he practically shouted, like a command.

Becker froze where he stood. He flipped back to face Connor. "What?" he asked, half a demand of anger and half a confused whisper.

Connor shook his head. He swallowed thickly. He really didn't have any reason to keep Becker there; he was just scared to lose sight of him. He shook his head again and felt his cheeks heat up. Becker stared at him intently for several long moments, that strange confusion/anger mix playing across his face. His face turned impassive, but Connor knew that it meant he'd won. He didn't know what he'd won though.

"Come with me, Connor Temple."

…

…

_Brrp!_

"Yes yes, what is it?" Sir James Lester asked, permitting whomever had buzzed his door to enter. He glanced up when they did. "Ah. Captain Becker. What brings you here?"

Becker's hands were behind his back and as he stepped further into the room, he pulled his right hand around to his front, pulling a stumbling Connor with it. Lester raised an eyebrow. Connor gave a sheepish grin.

"And who is this?"

"Connor Temple, sir," Becker informed him. "He broke in about half an hour ago claiming he needed to talk to you. I've had him searched and he's unarmed, and after speaking with him I thought you might want to meet him."

"And why would I want to meet him?" Lester asked.

Connor stood as straight as he could with Becker holding his wrist oddly. "I need to talk to you about the anomalies," he blurted before Becker could answer for him.

Lester again lifted an eyebrow. "What anomalies?" he asked. Luckily for Connor, he'd worked for Lester for almost three years and he knew a cover when he heard it.

"The anomalies," Connor repeated. "Three years ago, an anomaly in space and time opened in the Forest of Dean to the Permian Era. A Scutosaurus, a Gorgonopsid, and a Coelurosauravus came through." Lester looked about to speak, so Connor rushed through. "I was there." Lester shut his mouth. "I attended, well…apparently I still attend, the Central Metropolitan University. I studied paleontology under Professor Nick Cutter and I brought him evidence that some sort of monster was loose in the forest. That's why we were there: me, the professor, and Stephen Hart, the professor's lab assistant. That's where it all started: the Anomaly Research Center, headed by you under the minister. I work for you," he insisted.

Lester seemed to consider him for a moment. Becker's grip on his wrist was loose but firm and Connor could feel his stare. It made him feel self-conscious.

"You…knew Stephen Hart?" Lester asked, almost like he was commenting on the weather. Connor nodded furiously. "Then you'll be sad to know he died. Centipede bite."

Connor gasped. "He died of the arthropleura bite?" he asked incredulously. Connor rolled his eyes to the ceiling. "God this timeline is so screwed up. How did you manage without him?"

"I don't know what you mean," Lester evaded. He was giving Connor a look like he thought the younger man to be insane and he was considering having Becker toss him out on his butt.

"Stephen-" Connor cut himself off with a put upon sigh. He held his right hand, the one Becker wasn't holding, up to steady himself and took a deep breath. "I don't expect you to believe me, because you didn't believe Professor Cutter when he tried to tell you this before…but the timeline has changed. Someone did something. Something's changed," he explained as calmly as he could. "In my timeline, my original timeline, Stephen didn't die from that bite. We saved him. I," he let out a proud airy laugh, "I actually took out that beasty." He shook his head. "The point is, things are different. I fell asleep in my-" he stopped, his eyes flicking to Becker briefly, and cleared his throat. "I fell asleep last night in one bed, and woke up this morning in a flat I haven't lived in in three years. My best friend, who was also my flatmate yesterday," he pointed to the side like Abby was standing there, "doesn't even know who I am. I'm not in a relationship anymore, and I know I was when I went to sleep last night! I worked at the Anomaly Research Center, fighting dinosaurs and future predators, _saving_ people," he emphasized, "and making a difference in the world. Then I wake up and I'm some nobody geek again with no friends and no life, wishing I was James Bond, working on a dissertation for a theory that _I myself_ ," he pointed to himself with emphasis, "debunked and threw out two and a half years ago when I was done fighting off a mosasaur, the bloody _Loch Ness monster_ , with a canoe paddle!"

His rant over, Connor took in some ragged breaths. He hadn't meant to say all that, but he supposed with the situation the way it was, he was allowed to go a little crazy.

Lester took a deep breath and turned his attention from the heavily breathing Connor to Becker. "Becker. Do fetch our good professor. He might want to have a look at….Mr. Temple," he said with a nod in Connor's direction.

"What about him?" Becker asked, also nodding to Connor.

Lester waved a hand dismissively. "I think he's about to pass out anyway. Send in another of your men if you're worried."

Becker released Connor's wrist slowly, hesitantly, and then turned and left the room with all the grace a military training could give you. Connor watched him leave until the door shut and cut off his view, and then he turned to Lester. Lester was watching him and Connor couldn't read his expression.

"So," Lester began conversationally. "What exactly was your job at this…Anomaly Research Center?"

"Oh." Connor blinked. "Well, I programmed the ADD, the uh, The Anomaly Detection Device and its portable version. I built the Anomaly Rover. I invented the Anomaly Locker. I created the firewall to keep out snoopers from the system. I compiled the database on prehistoric creatures….I was the main researcher into the causes behind the anomalies after…." He shook his head. "I was logistics and brains," he ended quickly.

"Hm."

It was all Lester said before the office fell into silence. Lester went back to his paperwork like Connor wasn't even there. Did he actually believe what Connor said or was he just humoring him until they could get rid of him? Who was the professor? Was it- Connor barely let himself hope.

The door clicked open again and Connor flipped around in time to see Becker walk back in, Professor Nick Cutter in tow. Cutter stopped just inside the door and stared at him with wide eyes. Becker ushered him further into the room and closed the door behind him. The office was looking a bit crowded now.

"Good. You're quick," Lester commented. He motioned to Connor vaguely. "This schoolboy broke through our security today. He claims to know all about us and what we do here. What do you think, professor?"

Cutter glanced at Lester and then his eyes shot back to Connor. He looked like he'd seen a ghost. Connor bet he himself looked much the same. Nick Cutter was standing only a few feet away from him; alive. "I," the professor managed, but Connor started speaking at the same time.

"You're here," he breathed out, relief coating his voice. "Oh god. I don't-I can't explain it." He shook his head when Cutter gave him a confused look. "I'm not like you, Professor," he began quietly, his hands clenching into fists at his sides. "I can't live in a world where I'm the only one who remembers. _Please_ say you know who I am," he half begged.

Cutter just stared for a moment, his eyes going impossibly wider, and then he moved forward and wrapped his arms around Connor in a fierce hug "Of _course_ I know who you are…and I may very well kiss you this time, Connor. Really."

He sounded so relieved and it brought tears to Connor's eyes. Cutter remembered! He didn't know why only Cutter knew who he was and he didn't care. Connor's arms snapped around the professor and held on tight. He managed a tiny laugh through his tears and said, "Again, sweet, but you're really not my type, Professor."

…

…

Cutter vouched for Connor to Lester and, it seemed he'd been planning this the entire time, Lester hired Connor on the spot. Connor hadn't even had time to celebrate that turn of events when Lester was ordering him to start building the Anomaly Detection Device and all the other instruments he claimed he had rattling around in his brain. Cutter pat him on the back in congrats and offered to lend Connor half of his office until he had one of his own.

Connor looked to Becker as they left, but the captain was standing straight backed and staring forward, not even glancing in his direction. It hurt Connor in his heart.

He'd gained back his mentor, but lost his lover. It was a bittersweet exchange.


	2. Chapter 2

Cutter walked up to the doors of the military base and flashed his ID. By now, all the personnel recognized him so he didn't even get stopped to check the ID. He moved through the base, eyes barely glancing at the rooms he passed as he went. They were all weapons stores or small labs or offices. This was the base of operations for the Anomaly Project of the Home Office. It wasn't nearly as nice as the ARC had been, but this timeline was severely behind. Cutter somewhat doubted even Connor's brilliance could catch them up within the year.

Passing through a set of double doors, Cutter found himself in one of the largest rooms in the base. In the center of the room was an amalgamation of computers being worked on by none other than Connor Temple.

"Morning," Cutter greeted as he came to a stop by his old student at the keyboard. "How's it coming?"

Connor glanced over. "Oh. Good morning, Professor. It's almost done. Just a few more codes to enter and she'll be online." He laughed. "It's so much easier to build it once you've done it before."

Cutter smiled. "I bet. Last time you were developing this machine for two weeks before you built it. This time it's only been three days and you've almost finished it."

Connor nodded. "Lester's more impatient this time around. I've already started on the locking mechanism and the rover. We'll probably be up to speed with the ARC by the end of the month, machinery wise at least."

Cutter nodded but said nothing. He just watched as Connor typed. It had been thought that the computers should be against the wall for more support, but Connor vehemently refused and said the system was easier to work on when the back was exposed and that he'd make sure the system was supported enough. The con to this plan was that it made the room look much smaller; having all the technical stuff in the middle of the room. The Special Forces members were the only ones upset about it, really. They claimed it made maneuvering around the base harder. Cutter said it was crap, but who was a scientist to argue with the military? It was actually Becker who told his men to suck it up and deal or get out.

With a triumphant noise, Connor hit Enter and the computers whirred to life. "Yes!" Connor cheered. "The ADD is online!"

Cutter grinned at Connor's excitement, but it quickly dropped to a small frown. "Connor."

"Hm?" Connor asked distractedly.

"Why do you remember?"

Connor's triumphant smile faded and he turned in his chair to face his mentor. "I don't know," he admitted quietly. They were always quiet when this came up, since no one else knew. "I just went to sleep one night as a member of the ARC and woke up as a nobody."

Cutter shook his head. "You were never a nobody, Connor. You have always been my most brilliant student." His tone was similar to when Connor was the only one to believe him when the timeline changed last time - full of a subtle joy; except this time instead of being mixed with relief, it was mixed with pride.

Connor blushed at the praise. He opened his mouth to contradict but suddenly Captain Becker was standing there. "Ah." He shut his mouth with a soft snap.

Becker nodded to Cutter before focusing on Connor. "Is the detector complete?" He looked and sounded every bit the perfect solider he'd been when Connor first met him in the true timeline.

Connor nodded stiffly. It still hurt to hear that impassive tone in Becker's voice: the tone that suggested he didn't trust Connor. "Yea. Could you get Lester? He wanted to see it when it was done."

Becker nodded and walked away again. Connor watched him leave. Becker was physically the same as he'd been in the other timeline. He walked with the same practiced gait, the same light weight steps. But he wasn't the same. The similarity caused Connor's heart to ache every time he remembered that this Becker wouldn't ruffle his hair, wouldn't sneak up behind him and give him a strong warm hug while he was programming, would barely even speak to him. Once Becker was gone from his sight, Connor sighed and turned away toward the ADD once more. Cutter was staring at him with a dumbfounded expression, his right eyebrow rising to never before seen heights and his mouth slightly open.

"What?" Connor asked warily.

Cutter shook his head. "I'm just amazed at how much I missed out on after Helen shot me," he noted. "How long has this been going on then?" he asked, motioning between Connor and the empty air where Becker had vanished moments before.

Connor felt his face explode in red. "Wh-wha-what? Going on? Nothing's gone on!" Cutter kept staring at him and Connor sighed sadly, lowering his head. "Nothing's going on...and that's the problem." He glanced at Cutter through his bangs. "We got together shortly after you...after the ARC exploded. I wasn't expecting it and I got complete blown away," he explained a bit wistfully. "It was great. He'd just mentioned getting a flat together when...when all this happened. And now he doesn't even know me."

Once again, tears sprang to Connor's eyes and he hurriedly wiped them away before they could fall. Cutter placed a firm hand on his shoulder. It was strange. Three days in, three days with Cutter, and Connor still expected that maybe the older man would simply vanish or that he was a ghost that would pass straight through him. And every time the professor touched him he felt a thrill shoot through him as he realized it was true: he was alive. Connor didn't think he'd ever get used to it again.

"Things'll work out, Connor. Somehow they always do," Cutter promised him in a murmur.

This time Connor heard the steps coming closer. He wiped his face with his hands thoroughly and Cutter pulled his hand back. By the time Becker and Lester arrived, there was no sign of the previous conversation at all - except in their minds.

...

...

Connor cursed quietly to himself. That was the second time he'd been zapped by this stupid half-finished rover. He was about to throw it across the room they'd given him as an office. Connor leaned back in his rolling chair, causing it to roll a minute bit away from the table with the half finished rover on it. His office was smaller than Cutter's, and it felt even smaller for all the technical whatnot in it. Connor didn't think there was a spare bit of table in the room.

Connor felt old staring at his unfinished rover. He shouldn't have to build it again because it already existed. Except that it didn't. Not in this timeline. And that brought on a whole host of other thoughts. Upon waking up in this world, Connor had instantly gone to Lester. What was the other Connor like in this world? What about his parents? Was Tom still alive? Had he had a boyfriend here? A girlfriend? What life had he dropped to come back to the anomalies? He didn't remember it at all.

"Connor." Connor's head shot up to Becker standing in the doorway. His hands were at his sides instead of behind his back like they usually were around Connor. Becker nodded to him. "How's it coming?"

Connor's heart fell again. The way Becker had said his name...Connor had thought he remembered. "It's coming," he answered weakly. "By the end of the day, no doubt." He pushed himself back up to the table and picked up the small soldering iron from its stand. His eyes were on the metal before him, but his mind was at the door.

Becker nodded, looking uneasy. Connor turned his eyes to watch Becker instead, though he still held the iron. They stared at each other in silence, Connor with his heart aching and Becker with hesitance written all over his face. It must be weird for him, Connor thought, being alone with the new guy who broke in only six days ago and that may or may not be absolutely insane. What must Becker think of him? At length Becker said, "Cutter wants to see you."

It sounded like something he'd come up with on the spot, but before Connor could even think to respond an alarm began blaring through the base and his eyes widened. "An anomaly!" He practically threw the iron to its stand. Then he jumped up and ran past Becker, their arms brushing as he did. Becker followed as soon as Connor was in the hallway.

They passed by over a dozen Special Forces soldiers that Becker began shouting orders to, but Connor didn't stop until he was at the ADD. He hit three keys at lightning speed and the map on the screen zeroed in on the location of the anomaly.

"Got it!" he announced as Becker came to a stop next to him. Cutter had just stepped in from another room. Connor looked to him. "It's close, but not very."

Cutter nodded. "We'd better hurry then. Becker," he addressed, but simply jerked his head in the direction of where Connor supposed the cars were. This was the first anomaly since he'd arrived.

Connor followed Cutter out to the car. Becker was in the front with Cutter driving and Connor in the back with another Special Forces member, giving directions from his handheld detector. It wasn't until they were at the anomaly site (just off the side of a back road a few miles out of the city) that Connor realized he and Cutter were the only scientists along for the ride. Then they were out of the car and Connor cursed, smacking himself in the forehead with his free left hand.

"What is it, Connor?" Cutter asked in slight concern.

Connor grimaced as he spoke. "I haven't made the Anomaly Locker yet. We've no way to close it," he explained, upset with himself.

Cutter shrugged. "Then we'll handle it the way we always have before."

It seemed that was Becker's cue. He stepped forward and all his men responded by making a defensive circle around the anomaly, their guns at the ready and waiting for whatever dared come through. Connor blinked at them. "Efficient, they are," he noted lightly. "Professor," he began, "what do you do with the creatures that come through...in this timeline?" His eyes were on Becker's profile and the way the anomaly shown behind him.

"Same as you remember, Connor. Though Captain Becker doesn't agree with my methods," Cutter informed him with a smile.

Connor smiled too. "Still Action Man, then," he joked. Becker tensed where he stood and Connor grinned a bit wider. No matter the timeline, Becker didn't like that nickname.

…

…

It was over an hour of simply standing there, or sitting when Connor got particularly bored, before anything came through. Connor had taken to wrapping blades of grass together until they formed a semi-stable pencil-like shape and then drawing with them in the dirt on the side of the road. He'd drawn a G-rex, with its mouth open way too wide to be realistic, about to eat a stick figure version of himself. It wasn't the Sistine Chapel, but he was ok with his sketches. He was doodling diictodons when one of Becker's men shouted for attention.

Connor's head snapped up, every gunman straightened out and aimed, and through the anomaly came a- Well, it looked like an alien and it looked like a featherless ostrich. At thirteen feet long and six feet tall, all white with a single grey stripe from the top of its head down its back to its tail, it was one oddly gorgeous creature.

"Struthiomimus," Connor spouted off instinctively. "Late Cretaceous. Omnivore."

Cutter looked impressed. "Good." He complimented before getting back to the situation at hand. The Struthiomimus was flipping its head from side to side, looking perturbed and utterly confused. "You should tranquilize it now, Captain, before it gets its bearings and takes off. These dinosaurs could top eighty miles an hour."

Becker switched his normal gun for the tranquilizer gun Cutter was holding out for him. Just as he took aim, the Struthiomimus let out a very bird-like squawk, stumbled to the left a little, and shot off. Connor jumped in shock, but Becker let off a shot and the dinosaur went down before it could get very far.

"Yeah!" Connor whooped. "Great shot, Becker!" He gave a toothy grin to the captain, who simply raised an eyebrow. Connor's grin wilted.

"I suppose," Becker accepted with a shrug. "Thanks." He looked a bit dazed, like he wasn't sure why he'd just thanked Connor and the situation suddenly didn't make sense anymore. Connor almost snorted at his own observation. Like hunting dinosaurs with tranquilizer guns and standing next to a gateway to the past made sense.

Cutter clapped Connor on the shoulder. "You've gotten better at identifying your dinosaurs, I see," he said, again sounding proud. His hand slipped from Connor's shoulder. "You'll make a fine paleontologist yet."

Connor shook his head with a slight blush. "Nah. I dropped out of uni, remember?" he laughed, though it was the truth.

Becker watched them interact while his men did the hard job of hefting the large bird-wannabe back into its own time. His eyes narrowed.

…

…

It wasn't that Connor was a picky person. It was more that Connor remembered his last time sleeping where he worked, after Abby asked him to move out, and he wasn't keen to repeat the experience. But that was just what he seemed to have been doing for the past week. And he had a flat, so he could've gone back there whenever he wanted to, but he didn't. He wasn't even choosing not to go…it just sort of happened that way.

Every night, he'd be working - on the ADD, the rover, the locker, something – and he would fall asleep at his desk. And every night, he dreamt he was back home, but he wasn't. He was a ghost floating through the world, and everyone was confused and worried because he wasn't there anymore. It was like he'd vanished, or died, and only his spirit was left to watch as his loved ones mourned him. Then he woke up with a jerk and fell out of his chair onto the floor, where he let himself lay until his spine had properly readjusted itself.

All in all, Connor was homesick, and this was the vacation from hell that he'd never wanted to take.

This morning, however, he was woken early. "Connor." Connor jerked awake, again falling off his chair to the floor. He smacked his right shoulder against the table on his way down and groaned against the tile floor. Amused chuckling came from the door. "You alright?"

"I'm dead," he moaned. Cutter came over and held a hand down to him. Connor accepted and was hefted to his feet. "Ah."

Cutter put his hands on Connor's shoulders, helping him to stand up straight whether he needed it or not. "How 'bout we put off dying for a bit, huh? It's not really all it's cracked up to be, anyway."

Connor immediately stopped his wince, his pain forgotten. He stared at Cutter with wide, pained eyes; but it wasn't physical pain that was hurting him. For a moment, he'd forgotten that Cutter had died; that he'd been shot by his own wife and bled to death; that he'd been there when Cutter took his last breath. He could still remember the weight of the professor's head against his shoulder, smell the fire and the smoke, feel the heat and the pain and the hopelessness, because there was nothing he could do to save the man who was like a father to him-

"Connor." Cutter's voice struck through him like a bolt of lightning and Connor jumped.

"S-sorry," he apologized, putting his right hand on his head and shaking it a bit. "I was a bit gone there for a minute." Locking eyes with Cutter again he asked, "Were you saying something?"

Cutter's expression told Connor that the professor knew his student's thoughts. He looked regretful. "Connor," he began softly. "Dying isn't so bad. I knew you wouldn't let me down. I only regretted not being there for all the amazing discoveries of the future."

"So-" Connor stopped and took a breath. The quiet of the room around them felt almost suffocating. "So, you remember? What it's like after you die, I mean?" They were both almost whispering the conversation.

Cutter shook his head. "No. Not exactly." He shook his head again. "I remember dying. I remember going somewhere, my mind that is, and I didn't feel connected to anything anymore. When I try to remember after that, my mind just sort of goes blank and all I get is….nothing. Then I opened my eyes and I was in a different place with a slightly different life. I remembered everything of my old life and my new one in perfect detail."

"Me too!" Connor blurted loudly. He covered his mouth until the echo of his words had vanished and then he continued in the same quiet tone. "When I woke up and the world had changed, I….I can't explain it, professor, but I know who Claudia Brown is. I remember her. I do. And I am so sorry," he apologized.

He watched as Cutter's eyes widened and his eyebrows rose. The shock written across his face spoke volumes. Then all at once, he began to chuckle and ran his hands through his semi-longer hair. "Time is a strange thing indeed," he breathed out when his laughter was over. He beamed at Connor. "I didn't tell you before, because you didn't remember her….but in this timeline….Connor, I _married_ Claudia Brown."

Connor's eyes shot open as far as they could go. "You….You what? How? When?"

Cutter shook his head and shrugged, dropping his arms. "Long before I died in our original timeline. In this world, she never vanished. She's at the house right now, on maternity leave," he revealed with a bright smile.

"Wh-Uh-I-I don't-," Connor stuttered. A matching smile crept up onto his face and he let out a relieved and joyful laugh, loud in the early morning silence. "Congratulations, Professor!" He jumped the small space between them and wrapped his arms around Cutter in a fierce hug. "Oh, that's great!" Cutter returned the embrace with just as much enthusiasm.

For a long while they just stood there, enjoying the hold they had on each other and relishing in the good news. After a good three minutes, they pulled away from each other, though the smiles remained. Cutter threw his gaze over the room and his smile dimmed to normal levels. "Connor," he began, "what on earth are you doing sleeping in here? Don't you have a flat?"

Connor too glanced over the room. "Uh, yep. Yeah, I do," he agreed, placing his hands on his hips. "But I've just been so busy I haven't really had much time to spend in it." It wasn't actually a lie, he just wasn't letting on that he hadn't spent _any_ time there since he arrived. He gave the professor a curious look. "Speaking of which, Professor, what are you doing here so early? It's not even sunrise yet."

He knew because he had an alarm to wake him before technical 'operating hours' began. There were always soldiers going to and fro, but Connor never left his office after hours except to use the bathroom so they never crossed his path, and Lester didn't arrive until about eight a.m. It was barely six.

"I'm always here early. I'm just usually in my own office all the time." With a jab at the door, Cutter said, "I saw Captain Becker walking away from this room, so I thought I'd come see what had his attention."

Connor's gaze snapped to the door, the breath leaving his chest. "Becker? He was what?" His expression turned almost pitiful. "Why?"

Cutter shrugged. "I'm not sure. He didn't answer me when I greeted him. But maybe," he began suggestively, effectively catching the younger man's attention, "you should give that relationship another go, here in this timeline."

Connor's eyes turned sad. He shook his head. "No." He moved back to his chair and sat down. "No. I mean- Even if I wanted to, he might not even be gay in this timeline. He could be as straight as my compulsive Aunty Sasha's collection of kitten calendars," he said insistently. "And in any case, while I've been completely and totally mad about him for over a year now, he's only just met me a week ago. It's doomed to failure. Especially since he still sees me as some idiot security threat," he finished with a weak, vague wave of his arm towards the door as if Becker were standing right there.

Connor's rant just made Cutter grin and cross his arms over his chest in an attempt not to laugh at his student's plight. It just wouldn't be right. "You're over thinking things," he said easily. "If you fancied each other in one reality, there's nothing saying you can't fancy each other in another. You'll never know if you don't try, and you'll always regret it and wish you had."

The returning pathetic look on Connor's face did not help Cutter stop grinning. He looked like a kicked kitten – he was beyond kicked puppy in how adorably upset he was. In order to somewhat salvage the situation, and so he wouldn't laugh in Connor's face, Cutter gave the younger man an encouraging pat on the shoulder and left the room.

Connor let out a short, sad whine of a noise and put his left hand on his right shoulder, lightly patting the returning ache.

…

…

Ten days into this alternate reality. Anomaly Detection Device: online. Anomaly Rover: built. Anomaly locker: ready for action. Firewall: enhanced. Database: almost complete.

There hadn't yet been a second anomaly, and Connor was a bit glad for it. Yes, they had Becker and his army, and they had Cutter, but it was just odd with it being just him and the professor out there: no Abby, no Danny, no Sarah, not even a Stephen in this world.

Cutter had forced Connor to go home at night whenever he himself was leaving, so Connor actually saw the inside of his flat every day. While everything seemed to be leveling out, Connor knew that this place would never feel like home. He woke up on the tenth day and, on his way out the door, saw the message light blinking on his answering machine. Curious, he pushed play.

…

…

Captain Hilary James Becker was walking through the military base that served as the headquarters of the Anomaly Project when he spotted a familiar hat in a very odd place. One of the smaller armories had a large window in one wall, and through that window is where Becker saw Connor's hat covered head poking into view. He quietly stepped into the room, but Connor's head snapped up anyway.

Connor was sitting on the floor with his knees near his chest and his red gloved hands resting on them with his elbows hanging down. Even while the rest of his outfit had nothing to do with red, somehow the gloves just seemed to work. For a moment, Connor considered wiping his eyes of the few tears that had managed to escape, but then he thought of his Becker. He didn't worry about crying in front of his Becker, but this wasn't his Becker at all. Connor lowered his head, hiding his face and giving Becker nothing but a clear view of the top of Connor's trilby.

He wanted Becker to leave, to go away. At the same time, he wanted Becker to hold him close and never let him go. The conflicting emotions were tearing at his already aching heart. He didn't know what to do anymore!

"What's the matter?" Becker asked, his voice not quite the military tone it usually was. Connor shook his head and didn't look up. He heard Becker sigh and close the armory door, then drop the blinds over the window. They tapped the back of his hat lightly. "Connor," Becker tried, his voice gently insisting Connor to confide in him while not being overly familiar. He'd always had that amazing ability.

"My parents," Connor said. "My parents called. Left me a message on my machine." His voice was muffled a bit by the fact that he was talking into his legs, but not much. "Mum said she was worried cause she hadn't heard from me in awhile. Dad asked when I was coming home next, since school'll be letting out soon."

Becker shifted on his feet. After a moment, he set his gun on the table in the middle of the room and knelt down in front of Connor. "What's so bad about that? Your family is worried about you. It's normal."

Connor shook his head. "Not for me," he said, his voice growing thick from holding back tears. He pulled his hands off his knees and pushed at his eyes with his head still down. His dark brown hair falling over the red fabric of the gloves was sharp and yet seemed to only emphasize the pain. "I know you probably don't believe me when I say this isn't my right world….but in my original life….Both my parents were dead," he whispered.

For a few moments, only the low hum of the air conditioner permeated the space between them. Becker obviously didn't know what to say, and now that he'd started Connor felt like finishing anyway. He pulled his hands away and stared at them; at how his fingers escaped from the fabric that barely covered his knuckles.

"They got sick and died when I was still a baby. Just an infant," he spoke so quietly that it was only barely louder than a whisper. "I lived in an orphanage for a few years, til I was four. Then my Aunt Sasha came back from some overseas failed marriage or something and she took me in. She was nice, but she wasn't my mum. She got married when I was seven, but he wasn't my dad. And…And in this world I had my parents, but I don't know them. I don't know this timeline. I don't know if I had any friends, or boyfriends or girlfriends, or a job, or how I was doing in school, or what I liked and didn't like. I only know the self that I am and…and that self isn't this self who lived this life. Here. With parents," he finished lamely, lifting his eyes to Becker's.

Becker's expression was one that someone might have when considering a child's lie. It only lasted a moment before he lowered himself into a sitting position and his expression turned to one of simple interest. "So what's really bothering you?"

Connor shook his head and shrugged. "I guess…I _really_ want to meet my mum and dad….but I know that they'll just be like strangers to me. And they'd be expecting a loving son who remembers trips to the beach and family Christmases and old pets….and I'm not that son."

"No," Becker agreed with a little nod. "You're the son that fights dinosaurs and saves the world; the son who is probably inventing the future, every day." He stared intently into Connor's eyes and, with conviction, said, "I'm certain they'd be proud of either one."

Before Connor could blink, Becker was standing again and grabbing his gun. Then he was gone from the room, leaving Connor to himself once more. Connor's eyes got progressively wider with each passing second, his sorrow and worry vanishing in the face of a revelation. He gasped and jumped up, rushing from the room and darting around other military personnel to get to his destination.

"Professor!" he shouted, bursting into the office.

Cutter was sitting at his desk, looking over some form of paperwork. His head snapped up with the banging of his door. "Connor. What's the matter?"

With a shake of his head, Connor quickly shut the office door again and sat down in the chair across the desk from Cutter. "I just realized something." He took a deep breath. "Becker is almost more emotional than _I_ am!" The revelation didn't seem to be coming to Cutter, so he continued – with many waving arm motions and exuberance. "I've been living here, in this world, thinking that Becker was cold and military and different from my Becker, but he's not. He's the same guy. Which means that he's just been doing what I always told him not to do with me: he's pretending. He's hiding! He doesn't like to show it outside, so he just freaks out and pines and gets sad on the inside where no one can see it. I'd totally forgotten that, since my Becker is so open with me, and I'd written this Becker off completely!"

Cutter took the time that Connor was gasping in some air to speak. "Does that mean you'll give him a go, then?"

It seemed that perhaps Connor's mind hadn't gone that far yet. He stopped and simply stared at Cutter, but the professor could see the wheels turning at a million miles per hour. "No."

"No?"

"No." Connor shook his head. "I can't." He ran his hands through his hair. "Professor, I have to get back to my timeline," he insisted. "This world isn't right. For me. And maybe this timeline'll still exist when I get back to mine, but it won't have a Connor anymore. Probably. And if I get into a relationship with Becker here, and then I leave….I don't think I can do that to him."

If his explanation did anything, it made Cutter look regretful. "Connor….I don't think you're timeline exists anymore." Connor recoiled in his seat. "Listen to me. When I lost Claudia, I would've done _anything_ to change the world and get her back. But Stephen made me realize that I could go through a hundred thousand anomalies and change a hundred thousand things, and I'd still never be certain to get her back. I could actually make things worse." He let out a soft sigh, like a person who hates to be the bearer of bad news. "Perhaps you should do the best you can simply…living here."

The chair made a squeaking noise across the floor as Connor stood up. "I can't. I can't just forget." He ran his hands over his face to keep himself from crying. "I miss Abby and the flat. I miss Rex. I miss Sid and Nancy, my diictodons. I miss the ARC and my technical advisors and the labs and the menagerie and the whole place. I miss Sarah and Danny and Jenny and everyone I used to know that don't exist in this world. I miss Becker, and while I don't have to, maybe not, I still need to get back to him." He took a steadying breath. "The team can't just not exist. It can't."

Without waiting for an answer, Connor fled the room. He knew Cutter was probably right. He knew he was probably never going home. He'd been here ten days and it was likely to be ten hundred more. But he couldn't think about that. If he did, he'd break down and maybe never fix himself.

He wanted to go home.

…

…

That day the anomaly detector went off and they drove an hour to find a herd of Minmi packed into an alley and looking distressed. Connor loved how small they were: ten feet long and three feet tall. "One of the smallest of the armored dinosaurs," Cutter said.

It took a bit of time, but they managed to urge the small dinosaurs back through the anomaly into their own time. Connor hurriedly set up his anomaly locker once the path was clear and in less than four minutes, the rip in time was compressed into a locked ball.

Connor gave a flourish of his hand and a dramatic bow to the silent Special Forces members and Cutter chuckled at his antics. He clapped for Connor's brilliance, but it just seemed to make Connor feel awkward, so he stopped.

…

…

Connor was sat at the ADD the following day, staring blankly at the screens. With a sigh, he laid his head down on the desk where the keyboard wasn't and shut his eyes. The sounds of military going-ons were all around him, but he could barely hear them at all. He was lost in his thoughts.

Cutter was right. He couldn't try and change the world back, but only because he didn't know what caused the rift in the first place. Connor was certain that if he just knew what had instigated the change that he could go back and fix it. But that just led to more questions. What changed? How? Was someone behind it? If so, who? Why?

The hairs on the back of Connor's neck rose up and he lifted his head and spun his chair around to face Becker as he walked over. Becker stopped about three feet away and inclined his head, his hands held behind his back and his gun nowhere in sight.

"Becker," Connor greeted with a slow nod.

"Connor," Becker said in return. His eyes glanced around the room a bit, focused on the many screens of the ADD for a moment or two, and then landed back on Connor in the chair. "Have you eaten?"

Connor narrowed his eyes in confusion. "What?"

"Have you had lunch yet?" Becker rephrased.

Connor slowly, unsurely, shook his head. "Um, no. Why?"

Becker cleared his throat and his eyes darted off again for a second or two before returning. "I was wondering if you would mind if I joined you to eat."

There was no fighting it. Connor's strict 'do not get involved with this timeline's Becker' rule fell to pieces at the first sign that maybe it wasn't a hopeless dream. He nodded quickly. "No. I mean, sure. I mean, I don't mind." He gave a nervous laugh after his stumble and Becker gave a small smile in return.

"Then we should probably head out now. You never know when that system of yours is going to pick up another anomaly," he said in an almost teasing tone of voice.

It was so familiar that Connor wasn't sure if the dull ache in his chest was due to joy or heartbreak. He ignored it anyway.

…

…

Lunch actually wasn't terribly awkward.

Becker changed out of his military uniform into his civvies, threw four guns of different sizes and a handheld detector in the back of the car, and they were off. They went to the café that Connor remembered having a lunch date with Coralline (that he'd skipped out on, incidentally) at. Connor felt a few people staring at them and realized they must have made quiet the sight: a guy with perfectly combed hair in nice clothes and a guy with a bit too long hair in a trilby, fingerless gloves, a vest, and a t-shirt, none of which technically matched but worked well together.

They were silent and the air was thick with tension until they'd ordered. Connor handed his little menu away and waited until they were relatively alone again before clearing his throat. "Hmm, so," he said, tilting his head a bit to the side and then back up. He looked over the table at Becker, who was already watching him. Connor felt his cheeks heat a bit. "You look good in civvies," he complimented, gesturing to all of Becker.

Somehow that broke the ice and they began chatting, actually chatting. Becker told him he looked good too and asked what show he based his clothes on, and Connor said he mix and matched, and it turned out that Becker liked Star Trek too. Connor withheld his previous knowledge of this, since it was true of the Becker he already knew, and they had a debate about what the best series was and who the most badass characters were and favorite episodes and such.

They were just finishing their meal when the detector, now safely tucked into Connor's bag on his chair, started beeping. Connor turned his head to stare at his bag, his stomach dropping. When he looked back to Becker the Captain nodded, his expression hard. Connor stood, slipping his bag across his shoulders. Before he could reach for his wallet, Becker stood and shook his head.

"On me," he insisted. He dropped several bills on the table and waved to catch the waiter's attention, and then he grabbed Connor by the wrist and hauled him to the car.

The drive to the anomaly site was silent. Connor wasn't sure how to feel about Becker paying. It was like a date. It'd been fun and he'd liked it, but now he felt like he'd just cheated on his boyfriend….with his boyfriend? It was strange.

They beat the rest of the team to the site. Becker cursed as the car came to a stop. The dinosaur, about twenty feet long and seven feet tall, looked like a cousin to the T-Rex and was bent over and chewing on something. It definitely _used_ to be a human.

"Shit, it's killed someone." Becker reached in the back of the car and grabbed his main gun. He cast a glance at Connor, then to the gun. "No tranquilizing this one, alright?"

Connor shook his head. "No. Go right ahead." He was horrified to be watching someone being eaten, but he was also a bit turned on by Becker in a black under shirt, black collared over shirt, and nice dark jeans wielding a combat shotgun. Becker got out of the car and Connor hurried to follow suit. "Careful, Becker," he warned as Becker got closer to the creature. "It's like a T-Rex. Very dangerous."

"No, really?" Becker asked sarcastically. The dinosaur was several shades of brown, with spikes all the way down its body from the tip of its nose to the end of its tail. If Becker had to describe it shortly, he'd say it looked like a T-Rex mixed with a modern day crocodile. He lifted his gun and took aim. The shot went off and the creature's head snapped up from where it was eating. The pellets hit their target, knocking the dinosaur off its feet. "Hit it."

"K.O. Becker!" Connor congratulated. It echoed off the walls of the backs of the houses on either side of them. The creature stirred and stumbled back to its feet. From the looks of it, it wasn't hurt at all. "Oh no." It turned its head to Connor when he spoke.

A deep roar escaped its throat and Connor gulped. Then the predator charged. Connor turned, ripped the car door open, jumped inside, and slammed the door shut. He crawled to the other side of the car and the dinosaur rammed into the car with its head. The window shattered and Connor shouted. He scrambled for the handle of the door and hit the button to recline the chair instead. The seat went back and Connor's eyes snapped sideways.

Guns.

Connor reached for a gun, any gun, but the dinosaur forced its head in through the smashed and broken window and snapped at him. It barely missed his legs. Connor backed into the door, reached behind himself to the handle, and pulled. The door slipped open and Connor tumbled out of the car and on the asphalt head first. He let out a yelp upon contact. He heard the dinosaur growling and the scraping of the metal as it tried to pull its head back out of the window. Then another shot from the shotgun and silence.

After several quiet seconds, Connor picked himself up off the ground and looked in the car. "Uehhh." Becker was visible at the front of the car, and Connor guessed he'd shot the dinosaur with the shotgun at point blank range right behind the eyes. Connor used the car to pull himself to standing again and let out a relieved breath. Casting a smile to Becker across the bonnet he said, "Thanks, Becker."

How close Connor had come to dying was left unsaid.

Just then, two other black cars pulled up. Becker's men and Cutter hurried from the vehicles, guns in all hands except the ones carrying Connor's anomaly locker. Cutter ran to Becker and Connor while the soldiers did as they had last time and surrounded the anomaly as best they could, and others took care of the dead half-body. Connor actually really really missed Jenny Lewis right about now. As far as he knew, they had no PR coordinator in this timeline.

"What happened?" Cutter half-demanded when he got to Connor's side.

"Becker…," Connor motioned to the taller male. "Becker shot it in the face with a shotgun…and it died."

Cutter shook his head. "No, I can see that," he said. "What I meant is, Connor, you're bleeding."

"What?" Connor reached up touched his left cheek and neck with his hands lightly. "Ow." He jerked his hands away and saw, as the professor had said, there was blood on his fingers and gloves. "Oh, great," he groaned quietly. These were his favorite gloves.

Seeing as Connor was preoccupied and wasn't answering, Cutter turned to Becker. Becker stepped around the car to be closer to them. "When we arrived, the creature-"

"Alioramus," Cutter corrected. Becker shut his mouth. "So?"

Becker cleared his throat. "The Alio….ramus," he said uncertainly. Cutter nodded. "It had already killed someone, so I shot it. It fell and we thought it was dead, but it got back up and went after Connor." His grip on his gun tightened a bit, but only minutely. "He got in the car and it tried to get to him and got its head stuck," he pointed. "Connor got out of the car and I killed it while it was stuck."

If Cutter was upset they'd killed a dinosaur, he held it in. Instead, he let out a breath and turned concerned eyes to Connor. His eyes trailed down the side of Connor's face and Connor knew he was watching the blood that Connor could now feel trickling against his skin. It wasn't bad; just a wound from crashing into the ground and maybe a little bit of glass.

"Connor, I'm starting to think you need a personal bodyguard for all the trouble you get into," Cutter half-joked.

Connor gave a pout. "I can do the action stuff too. I handled myself perfectly fine when you weren't there. Took on a G-Rex once," he boasted.

Regardless of his insistence that he was perfectly capable of handling himself, Cutter wouldn't let up. By the time he'd locked the anomaly, Connor had gained a bodyguard chosen by Cutter himself. Of course that meant that it was none other than Captain Becker himself given the job of protecting the resident geek. Connor waited until Becker was gone to say anything to Cutter.

"What are you doing?" he asked in a hushed whine. "Why'd you pick the one guy I'm trying to avoid?"

Cutter lifted his right eyebrow as if saying 'oh? Is that what you're doing?' and shrugged. "Actually, he offered first." Then he walked away.

Cutter was treating Connor less and less like the stupid conspiracy-loving student and more like a close friend he could poke fun at all day and never fear actual wrath from. At the moment, Connor wasn't sure if he liked the change.


	3. Chapter 3

With a sigh, Connor rolled out from under the desk. He was on an actual rolling work bench because in this timeline Lester wouldn't let him bring his skateboard to work. Connor suspected it was only due to the lack of space in the base versus the large open area of the ARC. He'd been roped into updating all the Home Office computers somehow, so he had spent the last six hours on his back under every desk in the Home Office. He still wasn't allowed to bring his board with him, even though there was plenty of open space here, because the Home Office was 'government property' and it was 'disreputable' to bring 'toys' on the grounds – Lester's words. He actually saw a lot less of Lester in this timeline than he had when he worked for the ARC.

Sitting up, Connor groaned. He leaned forward, putting his head and shoulders between his knees and reaching as far forward as he could. His back snapped and popped loudly. A much more content sigh escaped him and Connor stretched into the air. He heard someone shift a bit to his left and lowered his arms.

"You know," he began, flipping the screwdriver in his hands idly as he turned his head to look at Becker, "I really think Cutter was thinking more of a bodyguard for in the field, not working in the office."

Becker shook his head a little. "I will protect you no matter where you are." Connor felt his cheeks heating up. Becker's voice was a comforting rumble, and it had sounded almost like a declaration of his feelings when he said that. But it wasn't. Because Connor wasn't even sure of Becker's orientation in this timeline, so how could there be a declaration of feelings?

Connor shook his head and stood. "Not when I'm taking a piss, I hope," he joked to rid himself of the tingling in his chest.

He cast Becker a winning smile and Becker seemed to tense. Connor cast his gaze around the large office area they were in at the moment. He'd finished all the computers. He guessed it had paid off to start early.

Looking back to Becker he asked, "Wanna grab some lunch?"

He really shouldn't, but they'd been eating lunch together the past three days, since the Alioramus attack, and it felt weird to think about breaking the new tradition. In his original life, Connor and Becker hadn't gone out for lunch all that often. Actually, they typically got all clichéd and one of them brought lunch for the both of them and they ate in the ARC break room. Most of the other personnel tended to avoid the break room around that time and Abby had told him it was because no one wanted to be within twenty feet of them when they were making stupid goo goo eyes at each other. Connor still held that he and Becker did not make such expressions, but inwardly he really didn't mind. In this timeline, he'd been forcing himself not to pine and openly oogle Becker every chance he got. It was getting harder the more he realized this Becker was just like his Becker: interests and personality and everything.

Becker smiled - something small but no less real than Connor's beacon. "Sure thing. Let me change real quick."

Connor grinned. "Hope you got worse clothes today. You got mentally undressed by every middle aged woman in that diner yesterday," he teased.

"No." Becker shook his head. "I think you're projecting. No one notices me, but you're rather eye catching." He looked Connor over once and yes, Connor had to admit he'd worn some pretty bright colors yesterday…and today he was wearing several shades of purple, but no. He wasn't the one people had been staring at.

He shrugged and waited until Becker was almost completely out of the room before he spoke again. When he did, he did it in the most casual voice he could muster. "I don't know. You're pretty sexy as a civvy."

He heard Becker flip to face him, but pretended to fiddle with the tools in his little case so he wouldn't have to look at the younger man. After a moment, Becker left to change and Connor let his head drop to the desk he was at.

"Shit, Connor. What are you doing?" he asked himself quietly.

…

…

Becker was in blue today. He looked hot. His clothes were better than yesterday's. Connor looked out the window while Becker drove them to lunch so he wouldn't start drooling on himself.

The world outside his window, passing by lazily with the motion of the traffic, didn't look any different from the world where Connor had grown up. The same stores existed and the same types of people walked the streets. Perhaps that was why Connor started going to lunch with Becker, after the first time. Because then the world seemed right. He had no way of noticing that there was anything wrong with his life when he was outside with Becker. The ARC still existed, he lived with Abby and their reptiles, Cutter wasn't waiting in an office reading a paper, Sarah was researching, Danny was scheming how to break into the ARC again and not get caught. Everything was right.

A woman sat at a café with a cup of coffee or tea on the table in front of her, her short dark hair, dark sunglasses on her head, and fresh young clothes catching the eyes of many men around her. She was people watching. Connor's eyes widened.

"Stop the car."

"What?" Becker asked.

"Stop the car, Becker," Connor repeated. "Now. Stop the car!"

Connor was already opening the door and Becker hit the brakes as he stumbled out to the road and then onto the sidewalk. "Connor! Wait! What's the matter?" With a huff, he reached over and pulled the passenger door shut, then hurried to find some place to park so he could follow.

"Helen!" Connor called in a gasp as he came up to the café. "Helen Cutter."

If she was surprised to see him, she didn't show it. One elegant eyebrow lifted into her hair line and she gave him one of her deceiving smiles. "Why if it isn't Connor Temple, my husband's most insistent student. How are you?"

Connor felt a glare sliding into place. He sat down in the chair next to Helen's around the table and placed his palms face down on the table. "Don't be smart. What did you do?"

"What do you mean?" she asked, giving him an almost patronizing look. "I haven't done anything."

The glare deepened. "Yes, you did," he accused quietly. "If you didn't, you wouldn't say 'your husband.' The professor remarried in this timeline, or didn't you check on that?" he asked sarcastically. Both of Helen's eyebrows lifted this time. Connor sighed and shook his head. "Look, I don't really care," he began again, softer this time. "Just tell me why you did it. Why? And how?"

Helen looked impressed, if that meant anything. "You are so clever, remembering the past the way you do," she complimented. Helen leaned forward a bit in her seat, but looked no less graceful. "The future didn't change with Nick's death," she told him frankly. "So I had to try something else."

"And has it changed yet?" Connor asked with a bit of heat. Why couldn't Helen simply try to change the world the way normal people did? In the current present? By fighting against animal abuse, raising money to cure cancer, or preaching save the whales, like everyone else?

With a shrug, Helen leaned back again. "I'm not sure. I haven't checked yet. I've been enjoying myself."

Connor let out a breath. "I don't _believe_ you," he said, exasperated. "You screw with people's lives and you don't even _care._ Do you have any idea what you've done?" he demanded quietly. In the corner of his eyes he saw Becker hurrying over.

Helen actually turned her head to look directly at Becker before giving Connor her attention again. "Not enough, it would seem. You still remember, and you're still researching the anomalies with my husband. I doubt the future was changed this time."

"How do I change it back?" Connor asked hurriedly. Becker was almost within ear shot now.

A placid grin stretched across Helen's beautiful face. "Desperate to get back to your precious lover, are we?" she asked, louder than necessary, and Connor saw Becker slow. "Sorry, but you can't get back to him." In a quieter tone, she said, "I'd sooner have you kill me than let you get in the way of my plans. You're over two million years too late to stop me, anyhow."

With practiced movements, Helen rose from her seat just as Becker got to the table. She nodded easily to him, placed some money on the table, and walked away. Connor glanced up at Becker from beneath his hat. He looked guarded, more standoffish than he had since they first had lunch together. Connor shook his head weakly.

"Can you not ask?" he half-pleaded before lowering his eyes to the table. "Just…not right now?"

Becker took a deep breath and opened his mouth, but a rapid beeping interrupted whatever he'd been about to say. Connor pulled his cell phone from his pocket. He'd just yesterday hooked his phone to the ADD, so he wouldn't have to carry the handheld detectors around. He put his phone back as he stood up.

"Anomaly time," he said half-heartedly.

With a curt nod, Becker turned and walked briskly away to where he'd parked the car. Connor followed in silence. They would have to talk about this later. How was Connor supposed to explain? And how would Becker take it? Connor really didn't want to deal with this, like, ever.

Stephen was right. Helen was a right bitch, she was.

…

…

Things were tense now. Becker hardly looked at Connor and neither of them spoke much. They didn't go out for lunch anymore. Becker was still Connor's unerring bodyguard, but it was a strained relationship. Connor was trying to ignore it, but it got harder and harder with each day.

"What's going on between you and Becker?" Cutter asked.

Connor barely glanced up from where he was playing on a PSP in the chair in front of Cutter's desk. Cutter was working on his anomaly layout; the one that had been destroyed upon his death in the other timeline.

"Nothing," Connor answered with a shrug, narrowing his eyes at the game and tilting his console like it would help. And maybe it would. Cutter had no idea.

With a shake of his head, Cutter said, "Don't give me that. It's been days since you two had a conversation."

Four days, but Connor wasn't telling the good old professor that.

"Besides, there must be a reason why you're in my office," Cutter rationalized, stopping his work to give his student his questioning look. "You haven't said a word since you sat down, so the only reason you're in here is because it's the one place Becker doesn't follow you."

Connor paused his game and set it on the desk. He sighed and ruffled his hair with his fingers. With his head still down and his hands still on his head, Connor revealed, "I saw Helen the other day."

If Cutter's attention had been divided before, it was solely on Connor now. "What? When? Where?"

Connor lifted his head but stared at the floor across the room instead of the professor. "Becker was taking me to lunch and I saw her at a café. It suddenly occurred to me that her life hadn't changed in this world. She still went missing through the anomalies. So I thought, maybe she knew what had changed the world this time too. And I was right." He looked at Cutter now. "She did something to ensure that the ARC never formed. She said killing you hadn't changed the future, so she had to try something else."

Cutter came to stand directly next to Connor. "Do you know how?" he asked, and his question was full of other, lower, hidden questions and reasons.

Connor shook his head. "No. She wouldn't tell me." Cutter's expression fell. "She said I was two million years too late to stop her, and she left." Connor frowned. "That's what happened between me and Becker."

"Helen?" Cutter asked in confusion. "What about that-"

"When I asked her how I could change things back to the way they were before," Connor interrupted. "She asked me if I was that desperate to get back to my lover. And she said it loud enough that I think the whole café and half the street could hear her."

"Becker heard that," Cutter stated with a nod. "And now he's avoiding you?"

Connor sighed and rubbed his temples. "I guess. I don't know. I think we're avoiding each other. Because I know he wants to know what Helen was talking about, but I don't know how I could possibly explain this in a way that wouldn't have him assuming the worst and ignoring me forever. And I can't deny what she said was true, because if it weren't I could've just said so from the beginning and I didn't, so obviously it's true, and I just don't know how to deal with this sort of thing! I'm not good at relationships, Professor!"

Cutter stood silently for several long moments, and then slowly made his way back to his anomaly time model. He looked it over for awhile, his thoughts hidden. "Well, Connor," he began at length, "you managed to hold Becker down in one lifetime. I'm sure you'll figure it out this time around as well, even if it takes you a bit longer."

"You're like a fortune cookie," Connor grumbled, grabbing his PSP and continuing his game. Cutter chuckled and kept working.

…

…

The locker room was empty. It wasn't as fancy looking as the one in the ARC, but there were a lot more military lockers in this one so Connor didn't think it mattered. He was lying on one of the benches between the lockers while Becker changed out of his uniform only a few feet away so that they could both go home. Most everyone else who was going home for the day had already left, thus the emptiness of the room.

Connor was staring at the lockers on the other side of the room so that he couldn't see Becker. Figure something out. The professor had said he'd figure it out. He heard Becker finishing up putting on his pants and sighed.

"Helen was right," he blurted before he could stop himself. He heard Becker pause for a moment.

"Who?" he asked, and Connor heard the shirt as it was pulled over skin on its way off Becker's body.

"The woman at the café the other day. Helen," Connor explained, keeping his voice quiet. Becker stopped again and didn't start. Connor plowed on. "She was right. I had a boyfriend before she screwed up the world and I ended up with a new life."

Becker moved again, and Connor thought it was him pulling out his civilian shirt. "Oh," was all he said, in the same quiet tone as Connor.

Connor nodded, still keeping his eyes firmly planted on the lockers across the room. "I didn't have the most amazing life before, I'll admit. But I had Abby and the flat and my pet dinos. And I had my job at the ARC and my computers and my friends on the team. And I had him," he revealed, his voice thick with emotion. "So I thought I was doing alright." He waited a moment, to calm himself so he wouldn't cry and his voice wouldn't break, before continuing. "I'd always been the nerd, the loser, the uncool; trying to fit in with school mates and colleagues and women, and just trying to be normal. No matter what I accomplished or what anyone told me over the years, I still felt a bit ostracized from the rest of the team; the rest of the _world,_ really. It was only after he told me that I was good just the way I was that I finally started to believe it."

"He made me happy," Connor whispered with a small, sorrowful smile. "No matter the danger or the disaster that happened that day, he was always there for me….That was the first thing I noticed when I woke up in this world. He wasn't there and I didn't understand why." He took a deep breath and let it out loudly.

"So you miss him?" Becker asked in a guarded tone of voice. Connor couldn't hear fabric moving anymore so he supposed Becker had finished changing while he'd been talking.

He shrugged. "Sort of. I found the him in this timeline," he said. "He's just the way he's always been. Moving lives hasn't altered him in the least…except that he didn't know me at all."

Becker sat on the bench next to Connor's, near his head, facing the opposite direction Connor was. "Did you get back together with him?"

Connor grinned wryly. This conversation was so weird. He was talking to the subject but the subject didn't know it. "No," he divulged airily. Connor pushed himself up into a sitting position, but kept it so that he and Becker were facing opposing directions. He held the bench with his hands tightly, to counteract the intensity of the emotions rolling through him. "I didn't even try."

Becker turned his head to stare at Connor's profile, hoping to gain some sort of reason why, but Connor kept his face as impassive as he could. It was hard. He'd always just worn his heart on his sleeve, but now he was trying to keeping everything inside.

"Why not?" Becker asked at length.

Connor lowered his eyes to the floor, considering. Why not? Why not? "Because," he began, "I didn't want to hurt him."

"I don't understand."

Connor sighed, but it wasn't sad or anything, it was simply a sigh. "I thought…my feelings for the other him, the one I'd been with before….If I got in a relationship with him and then he found out about that….I thought he would think I was only with him as a replacement…that I was seeing someone else when I looked at him. I thought about how I would feel if I were in that situation…and I knew he'd get hurt. So I'm not in a relationship anymore." He turned to Becker.

Becker's face was a myriad of emotions until Connor turned to him, and then they all vanished in the blink of an eye. Still, Connor had caught some of them. He was torn. He was sad. He was confused. What do you say to that?

"I'm sorry," Becker apologized.

Connor shook his head. "It's fine. It's strange, and I'm still adjusting….but I'll figure it out in the end," he assured the younger man. "I always do." He gave a smile that seemed to chase the tension from the room and stood. "Now, if you're ready to go, you can walk to me to my car and we can both go home, oh fearless guard."

Standing as well, Becker nodded. The walk to the parking lot was quiet save for the sounds of the world moving on around them, but it wasn't the tension filled silence of before. There was still a lot unsaid, more secrets on both their sides, but things would be better between them now. Or so Connor hoped.

…

…

The following day, upon entering the base, Connor was instantly snatched away by Cutter. He pulled Connor into his office and stood him next to his anomaly model.

"Look, Connor," he said.

Connor ran his eyes over the whole massive thing. "Look at what?" he asked almost hesitantly, not sure what he was supposed to have noticed.

Cutter stepped forward and pointed to a point where two of the bars were tied together with a bit of red string. The short hand on the little paper attached was illegible to Connor though. "This," Cutter said, obviously one step from going into shock, "is the next anomaly."

"Oh," Connor let out, a bit disappointed. Then what the professor had just said actually kicked in. "Oh! Really? You've predicted another one?" He stepped closer too, but made sure not to touch anything lest the world get knocked off kilter.

Cutter nodded. "Yep. I know when, and I'm ninety percent sure where. Give me a few minutes and I'll have the location." He turned, walked quickly to his desk, and began jotting something down on paper, every few seconds looking back up at the model.

Connor's eyes moved from the bit of red string, along the bars that were attached. The same bars were connected a bit further down. "Professor, about this oth-"

"In a minute, Connor," Cutter interrupted, scribbling furiously.

Connor took the brush off in stride. Instead, he carefully stepped between the poles to get closer to the connection point. He squinted at the writing on the paper there. Just legible, the professor's handwriting spelled out a date. Connor could only guess that the rest of it was a place, but he didn't much care about the location. The date was sixteen days ago.

Moving back to the outside of the model, Connor looked at the first connection point that Cutter had shown him. The date said tomorrow, if he was reading it right. Did that mean…An anomaly was going to open up that matched with the anomaly he'd gone through the day the timeline changed?

_"I'd sooner have you kill me than let you get in the way of my plans. You're over two million years too late to stop me, anyway."_

"Two million years," Connor murmured under his breath. "The beginning of the Pleistocene. She used that anomaly with the mammoths." He shook his head. "I'm gonna go work on the ADD, Professor," he said, loud enough to be heard across the room. "Let me know when you've worked out where."

Cutter waved a goodbye and Connor rushed from the room.

…

…

"If I asked, would you tell me who he was?" Becker asked. "And if you told me, would I even know him?"

Connor shut his eyes for a moment, his fingers hesitating above the keys. He cast Becker an almost teasing smile before turning back to his work. "I wouldn't tell you, but you might know him," he answered vaguely.

Becker grinned. "Oh, that's not fair. Now I'm curious."

Connor shrugged but didn't answer. After a few minutes of silence, with only the clicking of his fingers against the keyboard making any sound between them, Connor spoke without looking away from the computer screen. "How about you?" he asked. "Why don't you tell me about your romantic exploits?"

For a moment, Becker seemed to consider it. Then he got a curious look on his face. "How about you tell me what you know about me from your world, and I'll correct you if you're wrong?"

The thought hadn't occurred to Connor and he stopped typing. He turned his chair to face where Becker was half sitting on a nearby table and shrugged. "That could be interesting. Ok." He shut his eyes for a moment, thinking back, and then opened them again. "You lost your virginity shortly after enrolling at Sandhurst, but you never told me when or who with." Becker nodded, though he looked almost appalled that someone knew. "You had a girl named Christie who lived down the street from you for most of your life that was damned sure she was going to marry you since you were six, but you haven't seen her since you moved away and her obsession sort of put you off women. Not entirely though." Becker shifted uncomfortably and Connor gave a hopefully reassuring smile. "And you haven't really had a serious relationship since a year before you became Captain Becker."

Done, Connor waited for Becker's corrections. He'd been surprised when Becker had first told him all of that. Seriously, he'd expected that Becker had been in a dozen relationships and had women throwing themselves at him all his life. He was hot! But apparently, he'd always had Christie proposing and creeping him out and so he'd avoided relationships, and then once he was in Sandhurst he'd been more focused on his training. Even so, Connor had less action than the dear Captain had. It was sad.

"Well," Becker began suddenly, adjusting his position on the table vaguely. "You've pretty much got it, except….her name was Annabelle, not Christie, and she completely turned me off women when she insisted on shoving her naked chest in my face every other day for a month." A blush rose on his cheeks and around his neck as he revealed this fact and Connor's eyebrows lifted. It was worse than the original! "Other than that, it seems the Becker you used to know and I are quite similar." He maintained eye contact the whole time, something Connor respected. "Anything else you want to tell me about myself?"

Connor felt a laugh climb up his throat and escape through his mouth. "No. I'd rather _you_ tell me yourself. I like learning about you." He blushed lightly when he realized what he'd said, and he saw Becker react mostly the same way. "I mean-"

Becker held up a hand. "It's alright." He gave a slight smile as his blush receded. "But I don't know what to tell you. I doubt you want to know about training exercises or courses at the academy. And my personal life, as you've stated, is not very active."

"Well, what's your favorite color?" Connor asked, helping him along.

For a brief moment, Becker considered the question, then, "Blue. Yours?"

"Purple and Red," Connor answered proudly. "If you weren't part of the military, what would your dream job be?"

"I don't know," Becker admitted. "You'd have to let me think on that one. I've always wanted to be in the military, and I am." He gave a small smile. "I'll get back to you on it."

Connor nodded, though he doubted he'd have the chance to get the answer. If Cutter agreed, and maybe even if he didn't, Connor was jumping through the anomaly tomorrow and changing things back to the way they were meant to be.

But what was really meant to be? In this world, perhaps Connor wasn't meant to be part of the anomaly project. After all, even with Connor's help, it was still far behind the ARC in effectiveness and efficiency. Who knew how long until it was? Who knew if ever would be? What if it wasn't meant to be?

"What about you?" Becker interrupted his thought process. "What would you love to do besides chase dinosaurs?"

A grin automatically took up residence on Connor's face. "I've always wanted to be abducted by aliens," he admitted without shame or hesitance. "Or be part of a crime busting gang like on Scooby-Doo."

Becker burst out laughing and Connor's grin fell to a confused pout. What was so funny? Yea, he knew it wasn't conventional, but hey! The old Becker hadn't laughed!

"Sorry, sorry," Becker apologized after a minute or so, still chuckling every few seconds even as he rubbed his face and tried to compose himself. "I just didn't expect it, though I suppose I should've expected something a bit less orthodox."

Connor frowned and turned to the ADD. "Yea, well…Normalcy is overrated."

Becker nodded. "I completely agree."

Connor glanced back over his shoulder at Becker and found a gentle smile on his face. His lips quirked up, but before he could really smile Cutter called him over and he dropped it. "Oh. I'll be right back," Connor said to Becker before hurrying into Cutter's office. Becker frowned at his exit.

"I've got the location of the next anomaly," Cutter said as soon as the door was shut.

"That's great," Connor congratulated. Cutter was frowning speculatively at him and Connor let his smile lessen. "What's the matter?"

"It'll be to the same time period as the one that occurred the day the timeline changed," Cutter said. The look on his face said he already knew that Connor already knew that.

Connor knew the question without it being asked. He caved, giving the professor a pleading look. "I'm sorry. I really am. But if I have a chance to get home, to Becker, to Abby, to everything….Is it wrong for me to take it?"

Cutter shook his head. "Of course it's not," he assured Connor quietly. "If I had known what caused Claudia to vanish the first time, I would've run straight back through that anomaly and changed it back."

Connor's shoulders slumped. "But that's the point, Professor," he said sadly. "In this timeline, you got the girl. You got Claudia Brown and you're a father," he emphasized. "You got the happy ending this time. If I change things back-"

"Then all will be as it should," Cutter interrupted. He placed his hands on Connor's shoulders. "Even if I'm dead, I'll be happy with whatever you choose to do, Connor. I got to have the happy ending. If you get the world back the way it was, I'll still have that ending. And while I don't remember what it was like to be dead, I'm sure that Claudia will be with me." He shook Connor lightly. "Do what you need to do, Connor. Leave no regrets. Because when it's over, it's over, and there's no coming back."

"Well," Connor amended with a tiny, unsure smile, "Not usually."

Cutter let out a chuckle. "Right."

…

…

Bright and early the next morning, Connor, Cutter, Becker, and a dozen of Becker's men were seated in a park two cities over. The sun had just risen and Connor was having a hard time keeping his eyes open. He'd stayed late last night talking to Becker about stuff: likes, dislikes, dreams, favorite games, anything that came up. He'd known most of it already, but he thought he hid it well whenever Becker revealed a 'new' bit of information. And then he'd spent the rest of the night worrying about how much he could screw things up worse if he got this wrong, and what was he actually going to do to fix it, and a million other questions he didn't have the answers to. In the end, he'd fallen asleep only four hours before he had to get up for the drive.

Luckily, he wasn't driving.

Cutter told him once they'd arrived that he had looked adorable sleeping on Becker's shoulder in the car, and Connor had nearly died of embarrassment. Now he was seated on a bench next to a picnic table with Cutter standing somewhere to his right and Becker standing somewhere to his left.

If any jogger or person of any sort were to pass by, their group would stand out like a sore thumb: thirteen guys decked out in Special Forces uniforms and carrying guns of various sizes and types, one guy looking like he was about to go on a fossil dig, and a guy wearing a bright blue scarf and looking like some starving artist or something.

Suddenly, at about nine a.m., an anomaly burst into life a hundred feet away across the perfectly mowed grass. Connor jolted awake. The whole group hurried over and Connor assisted in the setting up on his anomaly closer. Once it was ready, he held the controller out to Cutter with sad eyes. Cutter accepted it with much the same look.

"Good luck, Connor."

"What's he talking about?" Becker asked abruptly. He glanced between Connor and the anomaly. "You're not going through there. Lester hasn't approved any missions."

Connor shook his head. "Lester doesn't know," he said. "But, Becker, this anomaly leads to the same time that the anomaly seventeen days ago did. I can go back to my own timeline." The emotion that ran across Becker's face was something akin to devastation and Connor felt his heart ache. He stepped over to the captain and embraced him. Becker tensed, probably not used to such bodily contact. "Thanks for everything," he whispered into the taller man's ear, "…and I'll see you again on the other side."

He pulled away and rushed over to Cutter again, wrapping his arms around the older man tightly. "I'll miss you so much," he gushed, feeling tears leap up behind his eyes. "I don't want to lose you again."

"You're not losing me, Connor," Cutter assured him, pulling back. "You've got me here," he poked Connor in the forehead, "and here," he pat him on the chest above his heart. "I know you're doing me proud, and that's all I could ask for."

Connor nodded, trying to make himself believe the professor's words. He swallowed thickly and rubbed his face to make sure he wouldn't cry, and then managed a wibbly smile. "Lock it once I'm through. If I stop Helen, the timeline should shift and the other team won't have arrived to lock it then, so I can get back through. But just in case…Unlock it in about two hours."

"Right," Cutter agreed with a nod. "Good luck."

Connor gave Becker a long look. If he failed, he'd possibly never see him again because he may screw up the timelines even worse. Becker kept opening and closing his mouth, as if trying to decide to say something about this. Connor shook his head to clear it as he turned away, nodded to the professor, and made his way into the anomaly. He was partway in, could feel time fractured around him, when he heard it.

"I think I love you!"

Connor flipped around and saw Becker standing there, everyone staring at him now. He looked relieved to have finally said it but nervous as to Connor's answer. Connor smiled at him and felt a tear slip down his face.

"Hilary," he began, "I will love you through a million timelines."

Then, before Becker's face could even react, Connor turned and ran through the rest of the anomaly, vanishing from sight.


	4. Chapter 4

The world Connor came out in was amazing: pale green grass as far as the eye could see, a forest of impossibly tall trees of several families off in the distance to his left, a river over a dozen feet wide to his right with hills beyond, and rich, full, dark green bushes dotted the area all around him.

"Oh wow," Connor gasped out, "Beautiful."

At first, Connor couldn't see any sign of animal life at all. Then he felt the rumble through the ground and heard one loud whinny, and suddenly over four dozen horses came galloping over the hill beyond the river. They charged through the shallow waters, sending watery pearls cascading in every direction. Once across, they turned from the anomaly and ran as a unit, one family, through the long grass into the distance. They were too small to be modern day horses, but their manes were long and flowing and they looked so free….They took Connor's breath away.

"Whoa," he managed to breathe out once they were gone. He shook his head, clearing his throat. "Right. I need to find Helen." He only hoped the other anomaly was open somewhere nearby, and not like…a continent away.

From his pocket he pulled a handheld anomaly detector. It was only picking up the anomaly directly behind Connor, even as it locked shut. As he watched it, praying for help, the needle jerked away across the river. Connor gasped and held the detector up closer to his face, like that would give him a better view. The detector didn't blip again, even after twenty seconds of staring. With a sigh, Connor put the detector back in his pocket and moved on.

He made his way across the river, everything from his mid calf down getting soaked through, and up the hill the horses had come over. From there, he could see for miles around. Where the river took a bend, probably a mile in the distance, Connor saw a small heard of some deer-like creatures grazing and drinking. He could see the herd of horses as they rounded the edge of the forest and vanished from sight. Something that may have been an eagle or a hawk cast a shadow as it flew high in the sky. More trees created another forest two hundred feet northwest of the hill. There were more hills like the one Connor stood on to Connor's left.

Connor headed across the great expanse as fast as he could without wasting too much energy. He headed for the hills since he could see in the other direction and there was no anomaly that way for miles. He'd barely passed the next hill, about six minutes later, when he spotted them.

Mammoths!

There were two mammoths standing at the edge of a large pond, grazing and drinking, not twenty feet away. Connor gasped and one of them turned its head. Almost instantly, it began making its way over to him. Its trunk reached him first, obviously, and it snuffed Connor's head. Seeming pleased with whatever it had smelled, the mammoth let out a rumble of sound and began poking Connor in the chest, the sides, the arms, the legs. It was searching.

Connor smiled, relief flooding through him. "Oh, Manny, it's you!" he cheered. "That means I'm close!" Manny's trunk nudged at his pants, nearly taking them off, and Connor yelped. "Sorry. I didn't bring any apples or treats for you."

As if he'd understood, Manny pushed Connor in the chest with his trunk. It wasn't hard enough to hurt him, but it did send Connor flying onto his backside. He scrambled up again, quickly, not liking being so vulnerable around an eight ton creature that could kill him on accident.

"Hey, where's the anomaly?" he asked. He looked around the area. "Look at me, asking the mammoth where it is. He doesn't know, or if he does, he can't answ-Hey!" he shouted as his hat vanished. He flipped back around and found the second mammoth from that day had joined them and had his hat on the end of its tusk.

Given the circumstances, Connor should've been happy he wasn't skewered when his hat was taken. He still wanted his hat back.

"Give that back. I'm in a hurry and I need to go," he explained, reaching up. The mammoth leaned down to get a better look at his hand and Connor took the opportunity to snatch his hat back. "Thank you. Now I really have to be going." He really didn't trust his life around an unfamiliar mammoth.

Keeping his hat held securely to his chest, Connor turned and walked away. He didn't run, in case that might make them think of him as some sort of threat or something. At first he'd thought they were following him, but a glance back as he rounded another hill (several long minutes later) showed they had gone back to their pond. When he turned around the side of the hill, he caught sight of something glimmering. He'd almost begun to run at it when it seemed to explode, the edges coming more into view around the hillside in fractures.

Someone had opened a previously locked anomaly.

Connor ducked down, though there was nothing to hide behind. A moment later, Helen Cutter appeared. She still had the stylishly cut hair, but her fresh and young clothes were not present. She was dressed, instead, in a green shirt and khaki shorts with a pack on her back and her sunglasses on her face. Almost immediately after she'd gone through, the anomaly vanished. Helen cast a smile back at the space where it had been before heading in Connor's direction.

Connor scrambled to get out of sight, but he'd never been the best at the action stuff, no matter what he said. She saw him, a mass of dark against the pale green grass, and frowned.

"What are you doing here?" she asked. "Your ticket home's just closed."

Even with her loose words, Connor could tell she was on guard and preparing for something. Connor stood up and frowned right back at her. "I could ask you the same thing. How did you get through a closed anomaly?" he asked, placing his hat back on his head.

Helen smiled at him pleasingly. "Let's not get into details now, hm?" she suggested.

Connor shrugged. "Ok." He blinked a few times. "Do you wanna see something amazing?" he asked as if genuinely interested. He began to back away slowly, motioning for Helen to follow.

Helen, of course, was not so easily deceived. "Why would you want to share anything with me?" she asked.

Connor frowned. "Well, there's no one else here," he said weakly.

Luckily, Helen seemed to think the 'weak' tone was due to him being trapped and not due to him feeling his lie was falling apart. She motioned for him to continue. "Alright then, go ahead. We've got all the time in the world, after all."

Connor nodded and began walking. He made sure he was directly in step with Helen, so she couldn't stab him in the back….literally. When they got close to the mammoths, Connor pointed to them. "Those are the mammoths we put back today," he said. "We'd had one for awhile, and when the other came through we realized this was our best chance at getting our mammoth back. And now they're home." He frowned lightly. "Though I wonder where the other mammoths are."

"I'm sure they'll find their way eventually," Helen stated evenly. "Now what is it you wanted to show me?"

"Oh." Connor pointed to the hill he'd climbed. "On the other side of the hill. You'll see it when we get to the top." Several minutes of silence later and they had climbed the hill. The other anomaly came into view and Connor pointed. "There."

The anomaly was fractured, not locked. It had barely been an hour so far. He'd done it. He'd stopped Helen from doing whatever it was she'd planned on doing! He couldn't completely hide his smile and he hoped Helen thought he was simply smiling at his own discovery of this anomaly.

Helen viewed the anomaly with interest even as she and Connor began their descent toward the river. "Do you know what's on the other side, then?" she asked. "Is that what makes it amazing?"

Connor nodded. "Yea." He gave her his best smile. "It's the future. But it's not the future we've seen before!" He imagined if it were true and a great beaming smile over took his face. "No predators. No apocalypse. Just people living; happy."

Now Helen looked truly interested. "Really?" she asked, and even as she tried to hide her emotions Connor could tell what she was thinking. Whatever she'd come through the anomaly to do would succeed. Perhaps she thought Connor being cut off from the world had done what she'd planned. Helen waded across the river like it was nothing and soon they were both standing next to the anomaly. "And you were headed back to tell your friends the good news?"

Connor was quick to nod. "Yea."

"And you came alone?" she asked suspiciously.

Connor shook his head. There was no way that Becker, or Abby or Danny for that matter, would let him go through an anomaly alone under normal circumstances. "Th-there are some Special Forces members on the other side," he said, pointing at the anomaly just next to them. Now he was wondering what to do with Helen. If he just let her go and jumped through this anomaly, would she go back to doing whatever her plan was and change the timeline anyway?

Helen was suddenly standing there with a gun pointed at him. "Sorry, but I'm afraid I'll have to kill you."

"What?" Connor gasped.

"You see, my plan was to stop the anomaly research center from opening entirely. I was going to stop you from going to the Forest of Dean with Nick, so the detectors would never be built, the creatures wouldn't be captured, and the future could be prevented. But you've already changed it yourself by coming through an anomaly on your own. Now, I can't let you go through another or somehow find your way back, so I'm going to have to kill you." She gave him a placating smile. "No hard feelings, right?"

Connor gave her an expression of wide eyed incredulity. "Yes. Yes there are some hard feelings." She lifted an eyebrow and he frowned. "Sorry, but I sort of like my life and I'd like to keep it."

He grabbed her hand with the gun with both of his own and pushed so that she couldn't aim the gun at him. Helen threw her left arm out and caught Connor right in the throat. He released her arm with a gag and she aimed at him again. Before she could shoot, Connor kicked out and knocked Helen off balance. Then he ran forward into her, pushing them both through the anomaly.

They landed in the early morning park in a heap. There was no one around. The gun hit the ground, still in Helen's grip, and fired. The shot echoed in the still morning air and Connor gasped, his ears ringing from the close distance between his ear and the gun when it went off.

Helen used his momentary pain to shove him off of her and jump up. Connor was much slower on the get up. Helen kicked him in the stomach and he went down again. She aimed at his head with the gun and Connor looked up at her.

"You don't have to," he said, pleading.

"Oh, but I do," Helen said. "I have to save the future. And if I have to kill all of you to do it, then I will."

All at once, there was a clatter of noise, dozens of sets of feet running. Helen turned to see what was going on. Connor scrambled to his feet. Around the curve came several Special Forces units, Abby, and Danny. Helen glared and turned to the anomaly. It fluctuated and vanished.

"No." She cursed and ran off into the trees opposite the Forces.

Connor watched her go, still reeling from the kick and the ringing in his ears.

"Connor?" Connor turned just as Abby reached him. She threw her arms around him. "Connor, it's you!"

He gasped, "Abby?" like he couldn't believe she was really there, or hugging him. Several Forces members rushed passed them and into the woods after Helen.

"Yes," Abby pulled back. "Where have you been? You've been gone for weeks!"

"I," Connor tried, feeling a bit shell shocked. He looked to Danny as he came to stand next to him too. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Why don't you give it a try?" Danny asked. He couldn't stop the wide grin overtaking his face.

Connor opened his mouth to answer but froze. Captain Becker stood fifteen feet away with his men, his brown eyes blown wide. Connor hurriedly stepped over to him, but stopped before he just kissed him right then and there. Though they were certain everyone knew about them, they still didn't do PDA, just in case. Connor's eyes ran over Becker's face, his heart hammering in his chest, and then he placed his hands on Becker's shoulders almost hesitantly. "Becker," he murmured.

"You vanished," Becker said, just as quietly, his hands clenching at his sides so he wouldn't hug Connor for all he was worth. "I woke up and you were gone," he whispered, his voice braking over the words.

Those were like the code words to unlock the dams. He was back! He was really back! Everything was ok now! Tears sprung to Connor's eyes and down his cheeks and his knees gave out, sending him to ground. Grabbing him securely by the arms, Becker fell with him while Danny and Abby hurried over to help.

"Dammit, Becker, what'd you say to him?" Danny asked as Abby knelt down and placed a hand on Connor's back.

Connor shook his head. "No. It's just….Oh, I've missed you guys." He held onto the front of Becker's military fatigues and leaned his head on Becker's chest right where his heart would be. He could feel it beating almost as fast as his own; reasserting the reality of this world and the fact that he'd succeeded. Against all belief and impossibility, he'd succeeded. "I just wanna go home," he whispered tiredly.

They loaded him into a car, along with Danny, Abby, Becker, and a Special Forces officer. Some of the men stayed behind to make sure the anomaly didn't reopen and release a pack of saber toothed tigers or something. Others were, probably uselessly, trying to find Helen in the surrounding woods and park. The others were following in separate cars. Connor was leaning against Becker in the back seat, his hat in his lap so he could lay his head on Becker's shoulder.

He tilted his head and lifted it a bit so that his mouth was right next to Becker's ear. "I love you," he breathed out. "I love you." He wasn't sure if anyone else in the car heard it and he didn't care. Becker squeezed his hand and smiled down at him and that was enough for now.

He was finally home.

…

…

Connor spent his first day lying in his bed and lounging around Abby's flat just soaking the place in, and then spending the night at Becker's and assuring himself that this was actually his Becker. Neither Abby nor Becker asked him about where he'd been. They could both see he wanted to focus on the here and now for the moment. Needed to.

The second day, and his first real morning back, was spent recapping everything that had happened for the past seventeen days in a report to hand to Lester. It took awhile. Connor had had to write a very _very_ long report chronicling what had happened to him.

He started by saying he fell asleep at Becker's flat, but without any further details than that, and woke up the next morning in a different flat he hadn't lived in for years. He ended with his return through the anomaly with Helen and the rest of the team showing up. Of course he didn't include all his talks with Cutter about Becker, or his conversations with Becker, in the report. After all, it really didn't matter what Becker's favorite color was or how Becker's turn towards men was influenced by a girl named Annabelle and not Christie. He also included his thoughts on why he'd remembered: going through the anomaly the day before and being shocked by the locking device must have caused some sort of rift reaction that made Connor exist just a fraction outside of the correct time frame, so the change that occurred shortly after didn't affect his mind. The report was filed and handed to Lester on the second evening after Connor's return.

He went home with Becker that day. And, like yesterday, Becker held Connor in a fierce hug as soon as the flat door was shut.

"I'm not going anywhere," Connor assured him. "I promise." Though he didn't make any move to pull away. In fact, he was holding Becker almost as tightly in return. He'd missed this. He'd missed wrapping his arms around Becker's taller form and clutching him close when one of them had nearly died; when he needed to cry; during moments of passion; because he simply wanted to.

"I'm supposed to protect you, but you vanished. I was with you and I failed anyway," Becker said in a self-degrading tone of voice.

Connor reached up a hand as best he could and smacked Becker lightly on the left cheek. Becker jumped back in shock, the hug finally breaking, and Connor smiled. "Don't be stupid, Stupid. We fell asleep and the world changed while we slept. You're not Superman, Becker. You're Action Man." He shrugged. "Besides, not even Superman could've stopped it."

Becker grinned. "No. I suppose not." He took Connor's hand and led him to the couch, where they sat down. Becker didn't release his hand even after they were seated. Connor wouldn't have let him let go anyway.

Connor gave an almost shy smile. "Did I tell you? There was another you."

"What?"

"In the alternate timeline. I met another you," Connor explained. Becker looked like he couldn't decide if he was happy or upset about that, so Connor continued. "You were exactly the same: Special Forces Captain, shoot first ask later, emotional but hiding it, curious. He even hated salad and loved the color blue, just like you. And just before I left, he said he loved me, just like you."

Becker frowned and gave Connor's hand a gentle squeeze. "And you? Did you love him?" His eyes were shining with the uncertainty he was attempting to hide from his face.

Connor gave him an incredulous look. "Did I-Of course I loved him, Becker. He was you!" He shook his head and leaned back in the couch. "But I didn't tell him. I knew if I did it wouldn't be the same. He didn't know me the way you do; he hadn't been through life and death with me like you. It just wouldn't have worked. Eventually I would've hurt you with my feelings for…..you." Connor scrunched his eyes up with the complexity of that statement. He turned his head to stare at Becker with unabashed adoration. "But now I'm back, and we're here together again….so I can say it as much as I want, right?" he asked with a hesitant grin. He still worried that maybe not everything had changed back just right.

Becker smiled warmly at him and all of Connor's fears evaporated. "Right." He leaned in closer to Connor and rested their foreheads together. "And I can say it back to you. I love you, Connor Temple."

Connor beamed. "And I love you, Hilary Becker. Can I move in now?"

Becker couldn't help but laugh, the warm rumble rolling throughout his entire body. He pulled back enough that he could nod and then kissed Connor full on the lips. "Yes. I'll get a new flat as soon as possible."

"Brilliant."


End file.
